McCoist plays down Stenhousemuir Twitter row

RANGERS manager Ally McCoist played down comments made against him on Twitter by Stenhousemuir striker John Gemmell and claimed there were no hard feelings between the two men.

Gemmell allegedly called McCoist “a p****” after the Rangers boss complained about his side being asked to play four games in 11 days.

The Stenny striker reportedly wrote that McCoist wanted his team to be able to “lie and get a massage for three days before checking their £5k a week wages are in”. Gemmell’s Twitter account has since been deleted.

McCoist laughed off the incident, which dominated Sunday newspaper back pages, but he believes the remarks serve as a further reminder to his own players to exercise caution when using social media.

‘I get called far worse’

Speaking after Rangers’ 2-0 win, he said: “I get called worse in the house to be honest with you.

“I reckon about 60 per cent of our dressing room agreed with him - that was the concerning thing!

“It was probably a bit ill-judged but I’m certainly not going to throw the toys out of the pram. In my time at Rangers, I have been called worse.

“He said to me ‘You know what I meant, didn’t you?’ To which I replied ‘Not really!’

“But it doesn’t matter. We are all big boys and we just get on with it.

“I think he did miss the point - my main gripe was the fans being asked to travel about to three or four games at this time of year.

“He maybe read the situation wrong. I wasn’t complaining about the amount of games, I was just trying to fight the fans’ corner.”

‘Different era’

McCoist added: “I’m fed up saying to our lads about Twitter because with the flick of a switch it’s global. There are no secrets.

“It’s a different era from the one we were brought up in. We could certainly get ourselves in enough trouble without Twitter.

“Twitter just seems another instrument to get them into trouble so I’m not a fan of Twitter.

“We have words with our lads as often as possible, just to tell them to watch what they are saying and watch what they are doing on Twitter.”

Reaction

Asked about the Twitter incident, Stenhousemuir boss Martyn Corrigan said: “That happened last night and is something the club will deal with next week.

“We can only comment on stuff I do and say. Whatever happens off [the pitch], we will deal with internally.

“It certainly didn’t distract us or our game-plan. You need to be very careful with social media. I don’t think it overshadowed the game.”

Rangers defender Richard Foster said: “I didn’t see it on Twitter but the boys were talking about it.

“That’s the beauty of Twitter. You can say what you want from behind a computer screen.

“I don’t think there was anything horrible in it. It was maybe spur of the moment. We’ve all done that.

“When you’re a Rangers player you have to be careful about these things. I don’t think we’ve got anyone in our dressing room daft enough to do that.”